Bodhi Rook - RO - Basic

A former Imperial pilot, Bodhi has strong piloting and technical skills that he will put to use for the Rebellion. Ever practical, highly anxious, Bodhi must gather his courage to bring the battle to the Empire.

Bodhi Rook hasn’t seen much love from Hasbro until now. He’s yet to be placed into The Black Series [Phase III] line and he didn’t make the Walmart exclusive 3.75” line either. Other licensees have tackled him already, most notably the Disney Elite Series line. But now he gets his first action figure from Hasbro in the 3.75” Rogue One line, a simple line of figures that are as nice as they are painful to longtime Star Wars collectors. We’ll say it right off of the bat. This action figure doesn’t have a great likeness. But for now we’re going to attribute all of that to the paint operations, which aren’t terrible, but leave something to be desired. The sculpt however is fantastic and Hasbro has added a pretty cool screen accurate accessory for extra play value that of course fits perfectly with the character’s role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story very well. The real world additions are so awesome to get with your figures. Hasbro added a few extra separately sculpted pieces here to give Bodhi Rook a few different looks. The vest is separately sculpted and easily removable (and beautifully tooled too) so that you can display him either more like a mechanic, or techie, or like a former member of the Galactic Empire. The head sculpt is pretty good too, but the paint operations don’t pay the greatest of respects to actor Riz Ahmed, whose telltale eyes that make up a huge part of his personality just aren’t reflected too well here.

Bodhi Rook was the specialist on hand in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. His role was lauded as well as criticized in the film. Seemingly an equal part of the cast from a viewer’s perspective, we find it interesting that he wasn’t on Hasbro’s radar to make the cast of main characters leads at once for the very first wave of The Black Series 6” figures that focused on Rogue One. We certainly didn’t need another Rey or Kylo Ren. And one of those two spots could have certainly been reserved for Bodhi Rook. We digress. The 5POA Bodhi Rook will probably interest the older Star Wars collectors, but we’d be lying if we told you we aren’t disappointed that this character hasn’t been made in the 3.75” super-articulated line. As the one calendar year slips into the next, it just seems that Hasbro has no chance of catching up so this might be one of the only opportunities to capture this character in action figure format. We do like the action figure. Hasbro is definitely thinking outside of the box quite a bit these days. The sculpts are really good. And there SLOWLY improving their paint operations, although, we really don’t understand why it is so difficult to make the facial paint operations look halfway decent. You might think Bodhi Rook looks halfway decent. But we think Hasbro could do better.

We also have to mention that we’re not too crazy about permanently sculpted goggles resting on his forehead. This is one of the negative drawbacks of a simple action figure line. There are major limitations to what can included with action figures. Hasbro doesn’t want to create a ton of loose accessories for these action figures. So that means the figures themselves have to be dumbed down a bit. Still, the figure isn’t without merit. We mentioned the removable vest accessory. But Bodhi Rook also comes with a blaster rifle that fits nicely in his right hand. And the thing that may interest you most is the screen accurate, albeit briefly seen, is really a fancy backpack zip line. Worn very briefly in the film while on Scarif, it has been re-purposed as the play feature for Bodhi Rook. This is how you do play features, Hasbro. It works for Bodhi Rook beautifully. You can attach it to him with or without his vest which is a nice touch. And he has a great center of gravity and is able to maintain an upright position even while wearing this bulky backpack. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a film that has interested longtime collectors a whole lot more than new or revitalized Star Wars fans (those who have jumped into collecting recently because of the reboot). It kills us that we don’t have a full super-articulated line, so these 5POA figures barely scratch the surface. But many are nice. Bodhi Rook could be considered one of the nice ones…. even despite its issues.